20 Tantalizing Holiday Main Dishes

Cornish Game Hens with Root Vegetable Hash

A marinade made of rosemary, orange juice and sorghum (a syrup that is stronger tasting than honey but less bitter than molasses) infuses the dish with sweetness and color. Chef Edward Lee swears by sorghum's flavor, but if you can't find it, molasses works.

Porchetta

You can halve this recipe, but chef Gerard Craft says he likes to make a lot so he has leftovers for sandwiches. We recommend ordering pork belly through an independent butcher, not a supermarket. The staff will be more accustomed to unexpected orders, and you're less likely to receive a rock-solid frozen belly. They may even remove the skin and trim the meat for you. Fennel seeds work, but look for fennel pollen, which has a sweeter and more intense flavor, at specialty stores or online.

Rolled Spinach Pork Loin

Roll a filling of bacon, chopped spinach and Parmesan cheese in pork loin roast to create this appealing holiday main dish, from Turkey Run Inn in Terre Haute, Indiana. When checking the temp of this roast, move the thermometer around so it's resting in meat, not filling.

Herbed Chicken With Wild Rice

For the holidays, guests savor this herbed chicken and vegetable main dish at Spa Shiki at the Lodge of Four Seasons in Lake Ozark, Missouri. Chefs cook and stir their own Alfredo sauce, but we skipped that step and used purchased sauce as the base.

Tomato Pesto Turkey and sides

Our main dish turkey gets an extra sparkle of flavor from tomato pesto with herbs, salt and pepper slipped between the skin and meat of a turkey breast. The mashed potatoes mix yellow and sweet potatoes with cream cheese, butter, sour cream, bacon and canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. The Brussels sprouts are skillet-roasted and tossed with seasoned mushrooms.

Pheasant Breast Supreme

Serve this rich sherried mushroom sauce over either pheasant or chicken breasts. The recipe comes from a restaurant in South Dakota, where several areas claim to be the "Pheasant Capital of the World."

Grand View Lodge Spinach-Stuffed Chicken

You have to try this spiral of chicken stuffed with oozing cheese, courtesy of Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, Minnesota. For another Minnesota chicken dish, try Roast Breast of Chicken with Mushroom and Wild Rice Stuffing, a favorite at the Gunflint Lodge near Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Roasted Pork with Jamaican Snapdragons

No flowers appear in this Caribbean-inspired dish from the Deadwood Social Club in Deadwood, South Dakota. The name simply sounded fun. Rum, raisins and sweet pork tenderloin provide the centerpiece of a delicious holiday meal.

Montana Broil

If your holiday diners are in the mood for something other than turkey -- or you're serving a choice of entrees -- try this marinated beef flank steak with rich mushroom sauce. The recipe comes from Camp Ticonderoga in Troy, Michigan, where the cathedral ceiling, cobblestone fireplaces and wood floors remind visitors of an early 1900s Adirondack lodge.